It is a mobile system that exploits the sterilizing properties of ozone, allowing, already in the context of production, the capillary collection of infectious risk medical waste and the simultaneous reduction of the microbial load. The technology makes it possible to “downgrade” the waste from special hazardous to urban and is primarily aimed at providing an effective tool for protecting healthcare workers from occupational exposure to biological risk. The reduction of the infectious risk also contributes to significantly limiting indoor biological contamination in healthcare environments, counteracting the proliferation of resistant species responsible for hospital infections, pathologies that are difficult to eradicate and constitute a real public health emergency.
Patent Status
PENDING
Priority Number
102021000027092
Priority Date
21/10/2021
License
INTERNATIONAL
Market
The proposed prototype should find its place in the market for the disposal of special waste at infectious risk generated in healthcare settings. The patented sterilization system allows a significant reduction in costs related to disposal, which for a medium-sized healthcare facility corresponds to a reduction in the expense incurred annually of at least 70%.
Problem
The containment of the risk from biological agents of healthcare workers represents a significant and widespread criticality of occupational safety that is still unresolved, to which the accidents and occupational diseases that characterize the healthcare sector are attributable. This purely professional aspect is often associated with a public health emergency, that of hospital infections, which constitute one of the most frequent and serious complications of health care.
The proposed technology, in addition to offering a valid prevention tool for the protection of the health of workers and users of healthcare facilities, has a significant impact on the reduction of the medical waste management costs, both in terms of storage logistics in the production areas, and in terms of disposal. It should also be highlighted that, in a broad “one-health” perspective, on-site sterilization also translates into a reduction in the carbon-footprint generated by road transport and the heat treatment to which infectious risk waste is destined.
Current Technology Limits
The limits of current in situ treatment technologies for medical waste are essentially attributable to the fact that, unlike the proposed patent, these are fixed plants, with industrial-type construction dimensions, which involve high construction costs that can be amortized only in the long term, which they also require large dedicated spaces (often not available in existing health facilities), together with the activation of the necessary logistical management for the movement of the waste, from the production areas to the one intended for treatment, and specific maintenance.
The systems currently in use neither ensure the protection of the healthcare worker from biohazard nor contain indoor contamination.
Killer Application
The main innovative applications of the proposed technology are:
Our Technology and Solution
The patented system is equipped with 2 working compartments, which operate in a combined way. The upper loading compartment is intended for the collection of waste, which is shredded and sent to the lower compartment where the sterilization treatment takes place, through an environment in which ozone is present at a controlled concentration. The device is designed as a traction-assisted mobile system, with the primary aim of ensuring timely collection and almost simultaneous treatment of waste at risk of infection.
Advantages
The subject of the patent idea, by ensuring on-site and real-time sterilization of the waste, prevents accidental contamination of the healthcare operator when inserting the waste into the collection compartment and , in particular, being mobile, allows the operator himself to immediately remove the contaminated material generated by handling the patient or deriving from work procedures that expose them to biological risk. It also bypasses the current criticality linked to the prolonged stationing of containers in the work areas during the collection of medical waste phase, thus effectively reducing the risk of indoor contamination. The sterilization of waste reduces the cost items associated with the disposal of special infectious waste by up to 70%.
Compared to the currently available fixed treatment technologies, the invention has an attractive market price also in consideration of the short amortization times of the initial expenditure, which can be estimated in the order of two or three years.
Roadmap
Development of the patented prototype from the current experimental level up to the industrial version, with the aim of proposing an attractive and versatile product for the market sector for which it is intended.
Therefore, partnerships are being finalized with lenders capable of supporting the technological and commercial development of the invention.
TRL
Team
